Yemeni air attack targeting al Qaeda members missed its mark on Tuesday and killed a mediator by mistake, prompting members of his tribe to explode a crude oil pipeline in clashes that followed, a Yemenu official said. According to Reuters, the mediator, who had been trying to persuade al Qaeda members to surrender, was killed instantly in a pre-dawn strike on his car in the Maarib province that also killed three and wounded two other people.

"Jaber al-Shabwani, the deputy governor of Maarib, was killed with a number of his relatives and travel companions in an airstrike targeting the Wadi Obeida area, where al Qaeda elements are present," said the official.

The strike provoked clashes between the Yemeni army and members of Shabwani's tribe as the tribesmen attacked the pipeline that transfer crude from Maarib to the Red Sea coast, the official said.